Man, I can't believe that anybody was actually rooting for the BLAZERS in game seven. Oh well, I guess people's hatred of everything Dallas combined with rooting for the underdog caused a little temporary insanity, because this is a real basketball fan's series, and I'm assuming we have a few hoops fans here. The two most asthetic teams in the NBA battle it out. Enjoy it while you can, because we'll be back to more halfcourt, low scoring, grind it out basketball in the conference finals. Brass tacks: PG: The deepest position in the series. Nash, Bibby, Van Exel, Jackson. Probably the quickest group of point guards in one series ever. Nash has to play more under control in this series. All that dribbling around (don't even attempt to say Nash doesn't dribble alot) energizer bunny BS won't work against Bibby and Jackson. Juss pass it to Dirk and let him shoot. Van Exel was the X factor against the Blazers, giving them a much needed shot in the arm. Advantage - push SG: Jim Jackson and Doug Christie will have to check Finley, who's capable of going off at any time. Walt Williams and Abdul Wahad will need to be effective to give Finley some much needed rest. Advantage - Kings SF: can anybody honestly tell me who is going to guard Peja? Stojakovic torched the Jazz to 55% from the field and an unreal 57% from 3s, and right now he's salivating. Advantage - Kings PF: Defense! We don't need no steenkink defense! Irk (No D) Nowitski will have his hands full in the post, but Webber won't be winning any defensive player of the year awards himself. Dirk should be outlawed in most states. He can drive, shoot, run the floor like a guard, and toss in 3 assist to boot. His pull up jumper off the dribble is almost unguardable. You also can't double team him, because he's never in the same spot on the floor two possessions in a row. Webber will have to get inside and get Nowitski in foul trouble. Advantage - Mavs C: Divac is probably the smartest center in the league. He'll pass it when the Mormon Toothpick is guarding him, and take it in when LaFrentz is guarding him. He also has a good outside shot. Advantage - Kings Kings in 6
Sac has a huge advantage bench wise. Bell, Griffin, Bradley and Van Exel. Jackson, Clark, JJ, Turkeyglue and Wallace or Pollard. Look for Pollard and Bradley to get into it alot in this series. Two punks.
Mavs in 7. They have shown that they have guts by coming back against Portland. Nowitzki is no choker, and he will lead the Mavs to the conference finals.
Why do you say this? I know it is very popular to say indeed. But the aesthetics of Dallas is nothing compared to the Kings. The aesthetics of Dallas is like Run TMC. Dallas just plays on superior shooting/scoring ability. They just play...the are the league's best team at playing simple, fast tempo, no-nonsense basketball. Dallas has a great fastbreak, that and their shooting is aesthetic. But once you get them into their halfcourt, they are all spacing and strongside attack with little movement, and you can get them into a perimeter shooting versus precision offense contest--which will favor the King's precision offense. The Kings will get better looks all day in halfcourt. The King's halfcourt is much, much more worthy of praise, as far as systems go. Where is codell? Codell, once in halfcourt sets, count how many possessions the Mavs have with no picking on the weakside. Then compare that to the Kings. Kings have them beat on the fastbreak mainly because they can do it for longer, and they defend better than the Mavs...and the Kings have them beat on better halfcourt system. Mavs have the most unguardable player on the court though, so can win the game of matchups. Too much still favors the Kings. imo, this matchup is not close, especially because I don't believe the Mavs can win an uptempo series against the Kings, nor do I believe the Mavs have the superior matchups (like the Lakers), to beat the Kings in a halfcourt contest.
It happens a little when their high PnR is being trapped, pushed out, and then zoned like ours does, then they decide to start Nowitzski on the weakside. But it mostly happens only when Najera is running around looking for something to do.
I was rooting for the Blazers until at the 2 minute mark of 4th quarter. Mavs deserve it. Blazer has no heart and they're bunch of talented losers. I disagreed. Dallas has the edge. IMHO, Nash is better than Bibby but Jackson is better than Van Exel. Nash has to bring it in order for the Mavs to win. Looking for Nash to step up his scoring. Edge belongs to the Mavs. I seem Finley play way better than Christie or Jackson and he's more poised under pressure. Agreed. Advantage - Kings. Weber is a much better Defensive player than Irk. The kings need to disrupt Irk's shooting rythm. Agreed. Dallas doesn't really have anyone to match up with Divac. Meanwhile, Scott Pollard is really capable on both ends of the floor. Huge edge for the Kings. Kings in 7 if Kings play rough like Portland did to exploit Dallas' "soft" interior.
Kings in 5. Everything Dallas does Sacramento does better it was proven last year, this year its the same Dallas team while Sacremento is even better with the additions of Keon Clark and Jimmy J. I would like to see a hard fought series but I dont see it happening.
How is it that Dallas (seeded 3) has home court advantage against the Kings (seeded 2)? I think Sacramento also has the edge in head to head wins in the regular season as well correct?
Division champs are automatically seeded 1 & 2...kind of a "reward" for winning the division. After that, whoever has the better regular season record gets home court
Sacremento won their divison they finished with 59 wins compared to Dallas's 60 but since they won their divison they are awarded the higher seed. Now since they are playing H2H the team with the better record gets the homecourt advantage. Personally i dont like the idea reward the team that won is divison. I believe they were tied 2-2 for the season series. Sacremento winning both games on the road and losing both games at home.
The Kings do everything better than the Mavs except outside shooting. The only chance the Mavs can win is they shoot well all series long. There's no margin of error against the Kings. And that doesn't bode well for the fast shooting Mavs. The only other factor to the advantage of the Mavs is mental toughness. The Kings have proven to be weak-minded when it comes to pressure situation. And any one of the Mavs shooters, on the other hand, can hit the crucial shot at crunch time.
I love this matchup - I wish I would get the chance to watch the games (no cable). I think Bibby played over his head in the playoffs last year and that Nash is going to have a much better series than he did against the Blazers. I gotta give it to the team with the best player: Nowitzi's Mavericks over the Sacramento Queens. (Webber is just too soft...)
I HATE I HATE HATE HATE THE DALLAS MAVERICKS! The Kings will Whoop on the Mavs again just like last year and the year before. Kings vs. Blazers would've been such a better series.
I was rooting for the Blaz only because they were the underdog and I wanted them to make history by destroying the mavs in 7!!! Oh well. Let's go kings!!! I can't see any more games, I stuck my tv in its box for storage yesterday, so that I would hopefully study more for my finals this week instead of watching tv. damn....should have locked up my computer I guess....stupid BBS.
Don't let your hatred blind you. I hate the Lakers and wanted them to lose so bad. But I wouldn't say Spurs vs. Wolves would've been a better series.
Why? Why NOT? The Mavs are easy to hate. Dirk looks like a goat. Steve Nash looks like a cracked out bum. Don Nelson looks like hes holding in gas all the time. And all 20 of their Assistant coaches from Nelly Jr to the Mummy Del Harris. And worst of all watching Mark Cuban celebrate like a 10 year old boy that just got a new toy makes me sick to my stomache. Not to mention the Mavs rival the Rockets.
